> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.mantle.chat/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.
# Triggers
> Control when your agent tasks run — on demand, on a schedule, or when an event happens
A trigger defines **when** a task fires. Every task has exactly one trigger. Pick the right trigger for your use case
and Mantle handles the rest.
Run when you press a button
Run on a time-based schedule
Run after another task finishes
Run when something happens in a connected app
***
## Manual
The simplest trigger. The task runs when **you** press the **Run now** button — nothing fires automatically.
Each agent can have at most one manual task. This is the "on demand" button you always have available.
**When to use it:**
* Deep-dive research you want to kick off yourself
* Reports you generate occasionally, not on a fixed schedule
* Testing an agent before automating it further
* One-off tasks where timing doesn't matter
**What it looks like in practice:**
```
Open task page → Press Run now → Agent executes → Result in chosen channel
```
**Common examples:**
* *"Analyze this week's data"* — you run it whenever you're ready to review
* *"Draft a proposal for \[client]"* — triggered when you start working on a pitch
* *"Summarize my notes"* — run before a meeting when you need a quick brief
Manual tasks are a great starting point. Once you see the agent working well, switch the trigger to a schedule or
integration.
***
## Schedule
The task runs automatically at a set time or interval. No manual action needed.
**Frequency options:**
| Frequency | Example |
| ----------- | ----------------------------------------------- |
| **Once** | Fire at a specific date and time |
| **Minute** | Every N minutes |
| **Hourly** | Every hour, or every N hours |
| **Daily** | Every day at a set time |
| **Weekly** | On specific days of the week |
| **Monthly** | On a specific date or day (e.g., 1st Monday) |
| **Yearly** | Once a year |
| **Custom** | Every N minutes / hours / days / weeks / months |
**Configuration:**
* **Time** — pick the time in 15-minute intervals
* **Timezone** — your local timezone is pre-selected; change it if needed
* **Start date** — optional; the task won't fire before this date
* **End condition** — run forever, stop after N runs, or stop on a specific date
**Common examples:**
* *Daily digest* — daily at 8am
* *Weekly report* — every Monday at 9am
* *Metrics check* — every hour
* *Monthly invoice summary* — 1st of each month at 7am
***
## On Complete
The task fires when another task finishes. This is how you build **task chains** — multi-step agent pipelines where each
step hands off to the next.
```
Task A completes ──► Task B fires ──► Task C fires
```
**Configuration:**
* **Source task** — which task to watch
* **Fire when** — Succeeds / Fails / Either
* **Pass upstream output** — inject the previous task's response into this task's context
**When to use it:**
* Building a research → edit → publish pipeline
* Handling errors: run a fallback agent when the main task fails
* Sequential steps where each stage needs the previous one's output
**Common examples:**
* *Researcher → Editor → Publisher* — three agents, each improving the previous output
* *Monitor → Alert* — a watcher task fails, fires an incident-reporting agent
* *Fetch → Format → Send* — gather data, format it, post to Slack
Chains are limited to 10 steps. One task can fan out to at most 5 downstream tasks. Cycles (A → B → A) are blocked at
save time.
***
## Integrations
Trigger a task when something happens in a connected app — a new issue in Linear, a payment in Stripe, a webhook from
any connected tool.
**Available integrations:**
| Integration | Example triggers |
| ------------------ | ------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Linear** | Issue created, status changed, comment added, assigned |
| **Stripe** | Payment succeeded, subscription cancelled, checkout completed |
| **Connected apps** | Any event from apps connected via your workspace integrations |
Connect an integration from your workspace settings. Once connected, its trigger events appear in the trigger picker.
**Common examples:**
* *New Linear issue* → agent triages it, adds labels, and posts a summary to #engineering
* *Payment failed* → agent drafts a customer recovery email
* *Subscription cancelled* → agent logs context and notifies the team in #revenue
***
## Choosing the right trigger
| You want to… | Use |
| --------------------------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------- |
| Run the agent whenever you feel like it | **Manual** |
| Run automatically every morning | **Schedule — daily** |
| Run on a repeating cycle | **Schedule — hourly / weekly / monthly** |
| React to another task finishing | **On Complete** |
| React to an external event (Linear issue, Stripe payment) | **Integration trigger** |
| Test an agent before automating it | **Manual** first, then switch |
***
Learn how tasks connect to agents and how to set up your first automation